'Bones' Season 9 spoilers: Hart Hanson on marriage, Pelant and a new Big Bad

"Bones" Season 9 is approaching rapidly, and who better than the show's creator and executive producer,
Hart Hanson, to give spoilers on what's coming in the new episodes. Will Pelant die? Will Booth and Brennan get married? Could there be a villain
worse than Christopher Pelant?

The answers are here.

Warning: Many, many "Bones" spoilers ahead!

Why can't Booth and Brennan just be happy?

Hart Hanson: Booth and Bones will be happy one day. How's that? But you know it's a tough road. The beginning of this season's a little bit sad.

How is Booth going to avoid telling Brennan what happened?

Hart Hanson: Poor Booth. It's very hard on him, because Brennan, as usual, is not aware of what's going on with her -- herself. And he's very aware. She thinks, 'Well obviously, we're growing apart. And it's because our brain chemistry didn't make that final synapse clutch that people who stay together forever make.' Booth knows the truth -- it's because they're living a lie. It's very tough on him. And she is rationalizing her intense sadness. So it's a sad beginning.

But hope appears by the end of the first episode!

As usual, a little bit of understanding about what might be going on has to creep in for Brennan. She just doesn't look at the world the way we do. So she just has to have a hint of what he might be going through to change her views. I'm being as vague as possible.

Is Pelant going to figure into this season like last season -- where he stirred things up and then went away?

Hart Hanson: Yes. Although I blurted out at Comic-Con ... Someone asked do I know how Pelant dies? And I said, 'Oh yeah.' So that particular spoiler is out there in the world. And it doesn't take a genius to know that for them to get married, Pelant might have to do. So there you go.

It seemed like you were going to kill off Sweets at the end of last season ...

Hart Hanson: I love Sweets. And so far we haven't had to lose him. Also, we've got him on contract.

What's coming up for him?

Hart Hanson: He's having a tough time. Sweets -- not John. John is fine. Sweets is having a tough time because the methods that Pelant was using to drive between his ersatz parents, Pelant got from his work on them. So he's having a hard time.

The other thing he's having trouble with is, should he be helping society by catching bad people who commit murders or should he be helping individuals, which is what he signed on to psychiatry for. So he has a tough time ahead of him too. He's becoming a man!

What's up with everyone else at the Jeffersonian?

Hart Hanson: Cam has her relationship with Arastoo, which is fraught. And she gets her identity stolen this year. We'll find out why that is more harmful to her than it would be to the average person. It's devastating to her beyond the fact that her bank accounts are frozen and people are trying to put her in jail.

Angela and Booth are not friends. Angela is furious at Booth for what happened to Brennan. And even when things get better, there are things that are said. And words cannot be taken back. That drags everybody into that. Including -- especially -- Hodgins.

Angela and Hodgins have a great relationship. But this thing with Booth, he has a different take on it than she does, and that just causes lots of room for drama.

Are there going to be any new squinterns this season?

Hart Hanson: We're always prepared for new squinterns, because the people we have are immensely talented and really should end up in pilots each year. So we have a couple of new squinterns in our pocket, but so far, we've managed to hang on to everybody. As development goes on increasingly throughout the year ... I mean, we don't have iron-clad contracts for these people -- they're guest stars each time. So if we lose somebody, then, you know, we'll kill them!

The next squintern, should we get there, I'm interested in a character who is handicapped, in a wheelchair, but who is just a complete and utter a**hole.

Is there going to be another Big Bad aside from Pelant?

Hart Hanson: Hardly anyone has asked that!

Yes. The question is, 'Does he exist or not?' Pelant has one more thing up his sleeve, which is 'Maybe there's someone worse than me.' And maybe there is.

Will there be any fun, themed episodes in Season 9?

Hart Hanson: We've got an undercover episode coming up pretty quickly when Booth and Brennan -- who are still having troubles -- going to a couples' retreat. We're really interested in having Hodgins and Angela go undercover. Probably won't go as well as it does for Booth and Brennan.

And we want to do a couple of 'weirdo' episodes. As you get older, you have the freedom to do a couple of weirdo things. I don't know what those are yet, but they'll be weird.

Do you have an endgame now that you are getting on in years?

Hart Hanson: The first end-game for 'Bones' would've been their wedding, for example. If we'd gone four or five years, we probably would've wed them. Now, there's a different endgame. Because they're gonna get married. And yes, I know what that is. Depending on how long we go -- I'm hoping I don't have to use that and think of another one!